A class production all the way, Victor/Victoria has some smart music and great playing by Julie Andrews, and an especially fine turn by Robert Preston, whose comic timing and delivery makes everyone else in the film look like an amateur. There are a couple of excellent setpieces right off the top, as Victoria flops trying out for a singing role because she's too refined, and then uses a cockroach in her salad to skip out on her restaurant bill. When the restaurant breaks out into pandemonium, Blake Edwards uses a restraint not normally associated with his comedies: he cuts to the view from across the street and we watch the patrons go nuts from a discreet and quiet distance.

Julie plays her twisted role with the appropriate finesse. She never completely convinces us that she could be mistaken for a man. As Blake Edwards explains on the commentary track, we accept the deception because the Victor's audiences in the movie do. Julie as Victor has her short hair slicked back and wears a tuxedo. In many shots, particularly with her perky upturned nose in profile, she's the unintentional spittin' image of Michael Redgrave's evil ventriloquist's dummy Hugo, from 1945's Dead of Night.

Robert Preston is fascinating as the queen bee performer who causes riots and can't resist a good joke. He's practical, wise, romantic and masculine. The 'Music Man' voice is still there, only with still more warmth - when he makes with the wisecracks in this film, it's more like Lubitsch than a sticom.

Victor/Victoria looks terrific, with a classy sheen few films were attempting in 1982. It has a studio look that's tastefully stylized. Even the exterior streets are sets, and they never look cheap - or too expensive either, if you can understand the distinction. The comedy in the hotel room is greatly enhanced by the set design. King Marchand's Peeping Tom behavior, when he sneeks a peek at the naked Victoria to prove his theory, comes off as less sick than it should, because of the glistening set.

Blake Edwards' very successful comedies don't always play well now, and Victor/Victoria has some examples of what works for him and what doesn't. All the character comedy is successful because he does indeed write good 'movie' dialogue, and there are so many likeable types to enjoy. He succeeds at making some of his slapstick work here, but there are a number of completely flat gags too. At one point, a private detective does a pratfall from a barstool, after being informed that it's broken. The gag just sits there, as unfunny as a forced joke in a Pink Panther movie.

The movie does run out of steam at the conclusion. Once everyone's come out of their various closets and Victoria's disguise dilemma is resolved, the show has nowhere to go and ends on a reprise of the (not all that snappy) Matador number, only with Robert Preston taking Julie's place and doing the skit in sloppy, drunken drag. He really looks plastered, and his flushed face and wild expressions make us feel like he really was put up to it at the last moment. But it's also garish, tasteless, and has the effect of blowing away the character Preston's built up, just for some cheap laughs. Usually movies like this resort to a pointless slapstick chase to wrap things up. It really isn't an ending, and it leaves Victor/Victoria sort of hanging.

Warner/Turner's DVD of Victor/Victoria is slick and colorful in anamorphic widescreen, and the remastered 5.1 sound is bright and snappy. The accompanying commentary has Ms. Andrews mostly carrying the ball (Mr. Edwards sounds rather weak) but together they relate their personal memories of the production very pleasantly. The seem very devoted to one another, and individually charming as well, a double class act.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Victor/Victoria rates:
Movie: Very Good
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Commentary with Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards, trailer
Packaging: Snapper case
Reviewed: June 11, 2002